ALT PLOT 2: "STRANGE PLANET" - Part 3 of 3

Note: This is merely an alternate plot idea. If you read all the way to the bottom and still want to find out what happens next, post a comment and I'll continue it. Otherwise I'll assume the other plot is better and let this version of the story die.

[0000]

Both the husband and wife opened their mouths to talk at the same time, but Thonwa stopped them with, "Let's hear the story from our new nennop."

Pillow shot me a skeptical look.

"Well," I stammered. "It seems as if the larva may not have human genetics. Pillow admitted to having sexual intercourse with someone named Glombo, and this could potentially be his larva. That being said, this individual is not present, and Pillow wished for David to serve as parent. David refused, on account of it not being the product of his own reproductive act."

"Pillow," Thonwa said. "Do you agree with this description of events?"

She nodded. "The word `larva' sounds rather strange in that context, but that's pretty much what happened."

"And you, David, do you agree with Sh'kassk'dwuissueblik's explanation?"

The man frowned. "I...I guess. I mean, she's right, we haven't done a paternity test. That being said, the boy doesn't look at all human. That's kinda a dead giveaway. And I...may have refused to be his father."

"Congratulations, Sh'kassk'dwuissueblik!" Thonwa said.

I smiled a little. "I think celebrations are premature."

"Yes, but this is a successful learning experience." She turned her attention to Pillow. "Pillow, do you need this male to raise your child?"

Mrs. Barnes nodded. "I can't do this alone."

"Yeah?" David challenged. "Then what's all this talk about going back to Glombo?"

Thonwa narrowed her eyes. "David, we have called Xasmisla. Please listen to your wife and wait for your turn."

The husband sighed, getting redder.

"We actually awoke you to resolve the Glombo issue," I said.

"Sh'kassk'dwuissueblik, emotions and memories don't get resolved. These things never go away. The most we can achieve is acceptance and being understood. The Cijmabsa crossed her arms. "Pillow, do you have any intention of going back to Glombo, to take him as the father of your child?"

The wife shook her head. "Not unless David tempts me."

"Pillow?"

She sighed. "As humans say, `He's out of the picture.' I don't know where to find him, and even if I did..."

Thonwa put a claw on her hip. "You'd be seeking him out only to spite David?"

"Well, not really..."

"You'd be trying to fill the hole in your life left by your husband, and seeking a previous relationship to fill the gap would be a lot easier than looking everywhere for another desirable mate."

Pillow stared. "Is it that obvious?"

"Actually, those were just guesses, based on what I know from being in your company as long as I have. That, and when someone tells you not to think of a pink elephant or a pink Wusu, or an ex-lover, you tend to think of what they suggest more strongly every time they mention it."

"Thonwa, I don't want to leave David! I just want him to-"

"Careful," Thonwa warned. "No emotional trigger words."

I thought I could see Pillow literally biting her tongue. "...To be a father...like I know he can be.'

Thonwa faced David. "It is now your bonyukam."

David asked his wife, "You wanted to say `man up', didn't you?"

"David," Thonwa said. "Let's not get sidetracked. You love Pillow, correct?"

"I..." he sighed through his nostrils. "I thought I did..."

"David..."

"Okay! I still do, I'm just jealous and angry."

"Why don't you want to care for this baby?"

"Because it's not mine."

"Why is that a problem?"

David fumbled through a few explanations before arriving at what he really meant. "What if Glombo comes back? What if all this effort I put into this marriage only amounts to me being nothing more than Pillow and Glombo's personal babysitter? I don't want to be some blubbering `yes dear' doormat that people just step all over!"

"We don't even know if this male will return. Would it not be better in your wife's eyes to do what he failed to do, and raise the child?"

Pillow nodded when David glanced at her, but he didn't answer.

Thonwa continued. "David, did Joseph reject Jesus for not being his physical child?"

"That's not the same thing!" David cried.

"Mary was pregnant with a child that wasn't his."

"That's different. Mary bore the son of God. Glombo hardly walks on water! He's just a guy."

"True, but think about the example."

David did appear to be thinking.

"This is not the only example of adoption from your culture and faith."

"I know...I just wish..."

"...You had a confirmation that you and Pillow could successfully reproduce."

He nodded. "You know me too well."

David rubbed his chin. "Sh'kassk'dwuissueblik, I've been thinking about what you said. If adopting the baby as my own is like burying a body, eating the body is...Sh'kassk'dwuissueblik, you've either said something incredibly profound, or incredibly stupid."

"I'm hoping it was profound," I said.

"I think I'm going to take it that way. It's definitely food for thought. You might be a good nennop yet."

Pillow spoke out of turn. "You mean...?" She caught her error, giving Thonwa an apologetic look.

"Are you going to raise the child, David?"

Mr. Barnes nodded.

Husband and wife exchanged `I'm sorry' looks and hugged each other.

David told his wife his opinions about Sarah, the ones we recommended at least. The female swallowed, but generally agreed with the assessment. "She does seem mentally underdeveloped."

They ended the Xasmisla in the usual manner.

"I'm still cold from the gojibi," Pillow said. "You think you could dust off that medical appliance of yours and warm me up? Maybe get started on a new egg?"

David blushed. "Really? Right after-" he gestured to the baby. "This?"

"I'm not a human, okay? I didn't just go through six hours of labor. I'm fully rested, and my batteries are all charged up, if I'm using that term correctly."

His blush deepened. "I...think you are. I mean, if you're implying more than fully rested..."

She just smirked at him.

The two kissed, then suddenly broke apart as the baby peed on the husband.

Pillow giggled. "So what should we name him?"

David frowned. "I'll have plenty of time to think about that while I'm doing laundry."

They named him Chaz, after the great Abreya prophet, and Joseph for the human part of his name.

Since things seemed to have settled down, and Thonwa was awake, I decided to take my turn in the cryogenics pod.

As eunuchs, nennops often serve as sex coaches, guiding a couple through the rather awkward process of reproduction. Thonwa suggested I stay awake to sit in a session, but I thought it better to conserve the crew's resources and go into hibernation for awhile instead.

Since the organic machine on the gojibi had been designed for a being with a proboscis, if also fit me, more or less. The device also had a nutrient tube (Thonwa said she'd used the proteins on me before,so I wouldn't throw up) and something that interfaced with your neurons to keep your mind busy. The result of the last item was an interesting sort of dream where instructional materials were presented. It reminded me of Learning Town in some respects, but was more open to exploration. I'll go into greater detail about this later.

Abreya cryogenics units were not designed to keep a Ss'sik'chtokiwij in stasis. This I learned sometime after I went under.

During this period of semi-consciousness, my body continued to grow and develop, shedding plates in some areas, growing larger ones in others.

I felt parts of my carapace piercing equipment lines, something pierced my shell, and in my intense pain, my suaakudsi shot out, destroying the organic machine sustaining me in the tank. I thrashed about, ripping out equipment lines, shattering glass, until I at last found myself sprawled on the floor, gasping for breath.

Some alarms must have gone off, for then I found Thonwa, Pillow, David and the android staring at me from the doorway.

"I'm okay," I panted. "Can't say the same for your equipment."

Thonwa shook her head and made tsk noises when she saw the damage. "Dear dear, this isn't good at all."

"It can be repaired," said the android. "However, I do not believe Sh'kassk'dwuissueblik should make use of the equipment again."

"I understand," I sighed. "How close are we to our destination?"

"We're only halfway there," said David. "You were under for five months."

Indeed, David had grown a beard, and the baby had gotten older. As for Pillow and Thonwa, I didn't notice that great a difference, except that Pillow had maybe gotten a little more plump. I decided that this `Interstellar' thing David had described wasn't as bad as he made it sound.

I'd aged quite a bit myself. In my sleep, I'd grown to resemble Grandmother, at least a little. In addition to a larger body size, I'd developed a sort of tiara about my head. This I discovered in the mirror later that day.

"Thonwa was expecting you to sleep an additional three before taking her turn," David said. "Guess you're going to have nennop duty for the rest of the flight. Hope you're ready."

I swallowed. "I'll try my best."

Darsettu is a class of positions one can safely hold a baby while engaging in sexual intercourse with one's spouse. The child does not participate. It is merely like the couple holding a football during intercourse. In fact, some nennops actually have the couple practice with a ball, to make them more confident that the child will not sustain injuries when they do it for real.

For example, the one seated upright may curl the infant in her tail, or place it between her shoulder blades. Thonwa could not convince David to successfully perform the reproductive act in any of the eight darsettu, so they worked on making Chaz Joseph comfortable with being held and bottle fed by a large bug-like creature.

Now that I was awake, they extended this trust exercise with me. We spent time standing in a close circle, passing the infant back and forth, until he seemed to trust that I would not devour him. Of course, Thonwa still suggested that the husband and wife aim for darsettu four, the Otomtup tail curl, in the event that little Chaz cried.

I asked about the possibility of a crib or a small bed, but Thonwa said it's not the Abreya way. She said it's psychologically traumatizing. David argued that `dad sex' is traumatizing in and of itself, but Pillow's nennop was under the impression that the child needed to develop first, to decide on their own to be independent and sleep in their own bed.

"I still don't get it," David said. "Babies cry all the time. On earth you put them in a crib and let them cry so, you know, they can get used to the crib, and being away from their mothers for awhile."

"You mean, get used to abandonment," said the Cijmabsa.

"C'mon! The mother has to have some sort of life away from the baby!"

"David, we've gone over this. It can happen naturally. It doesn't need to be forced."

"That's one of the functions of a nennop," Pillow agreed. "To aid in the transition."

"So, dad sex."

"They're called darsettu, David. I still can't believe I can't get you worked up with at least one of them. With the Otomtup and Aprujdi, he'll be behind us, so you don't even have to think about him."

"Yeah, but if you get too wild, you squish him."

"That's why there's recommended darsettu, and nennops."

"It's icky."

"You chose to marry an alien spouse," Thonwa said. "It took deliberate effort and psychological adaption to bring her to the point of marriage. All she's asking for is a little more."

David frowned. "I did drink her urine."

"Right. And we know that wasn't easy for you. In fact, that, in and of itself, was `icky', but you did it."

"We already practiced with a ball," Pillow added.

The situation didn't get resolved immediately, so we passed the baby around in a circle some more.

Once confident that I could successfully handle the metaphorical `football' without making him cry or melting him with acid, Thonwa retired to her cryogenic tank, and I got left alone with the married couple.

The husband and wife did not, as you may or may not have expected, immediately set about trying different darsettu. Instead, we spent a great deal of time in conversation, getting to know each other. Pillow said it was due to heir husband's dislike of `dad sex,' but I was hesitant to assert my dubious authority by pushing them into it.

Pillow's history is interesting, but lengthsome as her husband's. I'll have to save the account for a later chapter.

Pillow said I cooked like a human preschooler, but I taught her a thing or two about sewing.

David, being a fanatic about movies, told me about several of his favorites, but we could only watch a few of them, as their computers read DVD's but could not pick up any programs this far from earth.

David enjoyed telling stories. It reminded him of a time when the power went out in a snowstorm and his family huddled around a kerosene heater and talked until the fuel ran out.

Say what you want, but I found Avengers: Infinity Wars a lot more enjoyable as a verbally spoken narrative than a flashy industrialized product with rapid fire dialog and expensive special effects. The imagery created by one's own imagination, the personal nature of the communication, the unintended flights of fancy, spurred by an individual who didn't take the plot quite so seriously, none of this can be replicated with a movie camera. Also, it didn't require me to study a lot of other films to appreciate the story. Stan Lee may have turned like a rotisserie in his grave, but I fully intended to entertain my young with misremembered stories of "Muscular Shield Guy," and "Dude with the Hammer."

As stated previously, I'd grown to look more like Grandmother. In fact, I'd developed a tejhvewda in my sleep. I hadn't thought this particularly worth mentioning until I got too excited staring at a washing machine and a socmavaj egg popped out of my body.

Being rather undeveloped, the egg didn't open right away, but I still found the situation alarming. When I told the Barneses about it, they suggested I either shoot it out the airlock or put it in the freezer.

If I knew what would happen afterwards, I would have put it in the incinerator.

I laid three eggs during the course of the voyage. Since we didn't want anyone getting face hugged while retrieving their lunch, I opted for the safety of shooting the eggs into space .

It seemed one of them didn't quite go away.

Honestly, I don't know why my socmavaj didn't aim for the three warm, fully thawed bodies in the living area. Perhaps it had a craving for popsicles. Suffice to say, it chose Zadoori as its victim.

Big Bird detected it first, as the creature had breached the hull and damaged several important instruments necessary for proper operation of the craft.

Warning alarms shrieked in our ears as Mara rushed to our comrade's aid.

The glass cover of Zadoori's pod shattered when the android attempted to remove the socmavaj from its laying position. By the time I got there, it had already wrapped its tail around Zadoori's neck, legs wrapped around the face of its violently thrashing victim.

As a Ss'sik'chtokiwij, I instinctively knew what muscles you needed to grab and pinch to release a socmavaj's legs and tail. Zadoori's face had been covered with a disconcerting amount of slime, but that couldn't be helped.

Since the creature remained alive, and would continue to remain so until it deposited its egg payload, I rammed my claws through its body until it stopped moving. Acid sprayed Zadoori's face and his cryogenic equipment, but I did what I had to to save his life.

Sadly, this heroic act had unforeseen consequences far more severe than the loss of a gojibi machine.

In my haste to remove the socmavaj from the Abreya's person,. I flung it rather carelessly upon the floor, in a spot that just so happened to lay above a critical piece of steering equipment.

To say that the melted metal disagreed with the machinery would be an understatement. It sparked, flashed, caught fire.

The ship's thrusters fired up with so much gusto that we got thrown against the bulkheads. According to Big Bird's estimation, these happened to be the wrong bulkheads, meaning that we had just been forcefully propelled in a direction as far from our intended destination as we could possibly get.

Seconds later, everything started rattling, bolts flying loose, pieces of machinery snapping off and striking us.

A bulkhead in the hallway fell away, and angry winds came blasting in. A panel, burning from the friction of atmospheric molecules, flapped on a feeble hinge, bent and broke off, puncturing something that gushed gallons of pond green fluid.

Something exploded. Another wall fell away, and we experienced our vehicle smashing through the fuzzy white and purple canopies of diseased looking black trees, then clusters of wooden beehive-like huts.

We bashed against something I couldn't see, the room spun from the jarring impact, and our side of the vehicle separated from the main, crashing down upon another unseen object.

I hit a bulkhead and darkness swallowed me.

[0000]

Note: I made these chapters long because they lack good cliffhangers, and I was trying to show what happens when I don't use the Alien 3 storyline. This is only a test, to see if anyone is interested to read more. I will only continue it if someone bothers to comment. Otherwise, I will assume this wasn't a very good experiment.